Apparatus for exploring the level of liquid in a bore hole



Oct. 25, 1938 s. A. SCHERBATSKOY ET AL 2,134,428

APPARATUS FOR EXPLORING THE LEVEL OF LIQUID IN A BORE HOLE Filed July 24, 1957 FIG. 2

FIG!

l NVE NTORS 10 determining the level of liquid in oil wells by vThe structural features of the exploring device 10 l determination. Accordingly, compressed gas has ring now more particularly to Figure 1, the nu- I 45 in connection with the accompanying drawing is transmitted from the whistle 21 to the'top 45 UNITED STATES PATENT OFF'IE APPARATUS FOR EXPLORJNG THE LEVEL OF LIQUID IN A BORE HOLE Serge Alexander Scherbatskoy and Jacob Neufeld, Tulsa, Okla, assignors to Engineering Laboratories, Inc., Tulsa, Okla., a corporation of Oklahoma Application July 24, 1937, Serial No. 155,478 A 3 Claims. (cite-s05) Our invention relates to a means for locating hole Ii. The drill hole isprovided with a casing the level of liquid in a liquid fllled drill hole. 12 and is filled with a column of oil I3, the said One of the purposes of our invention is to pro- .column of oil extending up to the level M. It vide a means for surveying the'level'of oil in an is desired to determine the level M of the oil 5 oil producing well in order to determine the column. The device I is suspended by cable quantity of liquid to be pumped and to ascertain l5 which is wound above ground upon a cable the most eflicient and the most economical pumpdrum I6 by which the device H! can be lowered ing conditions. V I and raised in the bore hole. The drum I6 is pro- In the priorart attempts have been made for vided with a revolutions counter 30.

applying the well known echo principle for depth I0 are represented in detail in Figure 1. Referbeen released into the top of the casing thereby meral 11 is a cylindrical housing with a tapered creating a pressure wave which travelled down lower section designed so as to fit conveniently the well and backagain and with proper appara- 7 into the bore hole to be explored. The lower end 15 tusfor recording the echoes and determining the of the housing I] has openings l8 and I9 arvelocities at which the waves travel, attempts ranged so-as to permit free entrance of the liqhave been made for determining fluid level in uidl3, the level of which is beingsurveyed.- The oil wells. (See The depthograph, a new 'instrunumeral designates a floatdesigned to actu- 20 ment for the production engineer by C. P. Walkate the valve 2! by means of the rod '22; 23 is 20 er, California OilWeekly, October 15, 1936, p. 8-9 a spring rr n so as p h v lve 2| and 24-25.) This prior method is not believed closed. The tank 24 is filled with c mpre to be as accurate or reliable as is desirable, be-, air and is connected by means of the tube 25, causeof the physical difficulties attendant to the valve 2| and the tube 26fto the whistle 21 situoperation of the method. ated at the outside of the housing I'I. Numeral 25 It is therefore an object of our invention to 28 designates a lifting ring to which the cable provide a simple and reliable apparatus for de I5 is attached. Numeral 29 designates a' cavity termining the level of liquid in any llquid'fllled in which thefloat 20 is located. drill hole. I The operation of the device is as follows:

30 It is a further object of our invention to pro- By means of the cable l5 the exploring instru- 30 Y vide an apparatus for determining the level of the ment In is slowly lowered into the bore hole. The boundary between two different liquids located in spring 23 maintains the valve 2! closed as long a drill hole. as the float 20 is not buoyed up by a liquid.

" It is a furthenobject of our invention to deter- Upon reaching the level M of the liquid the mine the depth at whichthe liquid in the drill cavity 29 fills with liquid and the float 20 is 35 hole possesses a predetermined density. buoyed up. 'I'herod 22 is raised compressing the It is still a further object of-our' invention to spring 23 and opening the valve 2|, allowing the determine the variation of the density of the compressed air in 24 to escape through the tubes liquid with respect to depth in the drill hole. 25 and 2,6 and blow the whistle 21.

40 The novel features which we believe to be char- It is therefore apparent that whenever during 40 acteristic of our invention are set forth with the process of lowering the-exploring device It! particularity in the appended claims. Our ininto the drill hole, the cavity 29 of the exploring vention, itself, however, will be better understood device reaches the level l4 and becomes subseby' reference to the following description taken quently submerged in the liquid I3, a sound signal in which: ofthe drill hole. It is obvious that the length Figure 1 represents an exploring device for of the cable l5 at which the sound signal appears producing an acoustical signal in accordance with can be readily determined by any of the means our invention. well known in the art, as for instance, bymeans Figure 2 represents the general arrangement of the measured pulley I6 equipped with a revo- '50 for exploring the level of liquid in a drill hole, in lutions counter 30. .By observing the length of which the device of Figure 1 is used. the cable at 'which the sound signal appears the Referring now more particularly to Flgure 2,. depth corresponding to the liquid level It is the numeral Ill designates the exploring instrureadily determined. 4 ment in the process of being lowered into a drill A further application of our invention consists 55 in determining the variation of the density of the liquid with depth in a drill hole. In particular, in Wells producing large quantities of gas the fluid is seldom as dense within the well during production as it is in a sample drawn from the well and from which the gas has been allowed to the liquid with respect to depth throughout the Well.

In that connection, ifwe refer again to Figure 1 it may be readily seen that the valve 2| is subjected to the action of two forces: the force of the spring 23 tending to close the valve and the hydrostatic pressure upon the buoy 20 tending to open the valve.

Assume that the well to be explored possesses a high gas-oil ratio, and consequently the liquid contained in the well has a variable density which gradually increases with the depth. When the exploring device It! is suspended at a comparatively small depth at which the density of the liquid is small the force of the spring 23 predominates and consequently the valve 2| is closed. By lowering the exploring device the density of liquid in which the float 20 becomes submerged gradually increases and consequently the hydrostatic force acting upon the float and tendingto counterbalance the action of the spring 23 gradually increases. At a certain depth a liquidv density is reached which. is sufliciently great to cause the hydrostatic force acting upon the float to predominate upon the spring and consequently the valve 2| opens. Then the compressed air from the reservoir 24 enters the whistle 21 through the tubing 25 and 26 and emits a sound which becomes transmitted to the surface of the earth. By means of this signal the depth. at which the liquid possesses a predetermined density can be readily evaluated.

From the foregoing description it is thought to be obvious that the survey in a liquid filled drill hole as described in accordance with our invention is particularly well adapted for use by reasonof the convenience and facility with which it may be practised.

In view of our invention and disclosure, variations and modifications to meet individual whim or particular 'need will doubtless become evident to others skilled inthe art to obtain allor part of the benefits of our invention without copying the structure shown and, we therefore claim all such in so far as they fall within the reasonable spirit and scope of our invention.

We claim:

l. A device for surveying the level of liquid in a liquid filled drill hole, consisting of a housing, a cable for supporting said housing and for permitting its travel through the drill hole, a sound generator, a reservoir of compressed air disposed within said housing, a valve between the said reservoir and the said sound generator, a floating member connected to the said valve and suspended within said housing, the said floating member being adapted upon the contact with liquid to open the said valve. A

2. A device for surveying the level of liquid in a liquid filled drill hole, consisting of an explorer housing, a cable for supporting said housing and forv permitting its travel through the drill hole, means for determining the depth at which the housing is suspended, a sound generator and a reservoir of compressed air disposed within said housing, a valve between the said reservoir and the said sound' generator, a floating member connected to the said valve and suspended within said housing, the said floating member, being adapted upon the contact with liquid to open the said valve allowing the said reservoir to be operatively connected to the said sound generator.

3. In an apparatus for surveying the'level of liquid in a liquid filled bore hole, a sound generator and a reservoir'of energy, means for producing an operative connection between the sound generator and a reservoir of energy when exposed to the action of the said liquid, means for lowering the soundgenerator and the energy reservoir to various depths within the bore hole, and means for determining the depths to which the sound generator has been lowered.

- SERGE A. SCHERBATSKOY.

JACOB 

